Welcome to Follow Him Favorites.
This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's come follow me lesson. John, the fall of David. David and Besshiba. This is the David who was able to overcome Goliath.
But he falls here. Tell me what story you have. It hurts because he has points where he could go, "Oh, maybe I should have gone to war. Maybe I shouldn't be up here on my laser porch. Maybe I just shouldn't be here.
Maybe we can learn lots of lessons from that. I have a book at home called The Next Few Years We'll Change Your Life." By Travis Hansen.
“And I think he's an athletic director down at BYU now.”
Great guy. I'll let him tell the story. I was a sophomore in high school. At time when many teens want to make friends get a driver's license, be seen in the latest fashion.
I was no different. Some of the older guys had cool clothes, just the kind of gear other teens would love to have. A few of my friends learned these older guys stole this and other clothing from the university mall.
I sold what they didn't keep. My friends thought it was a cool thing to do and somewhere along the line. I bought into the idea that it would be a thrill and went along for the ride. And then he said, "You can see where this is going already." Walking into the mall, we came up with a plan.
Somebody would be lookout. Somebody else would distract the clerk. Another guy would steal the stuff. I had a bad feeling about this, as soon as we got to the store we decided to target.
“It also happened to be the most popular shop in the mall.”
They sort of the cool kids shopped, but I had this feeling it was not right. I didn't belong there, absolutely shouldn't be part of it. Everything I had been taught. All my life, everything I thought I was, screamed at me to run away. I tried to think of excuses, my mom needed me.
At a doctor's appointment, anything to get me out of there, sadly I pushed these thoughts away, decided to go along with it. Two guys, went to the dressing room, stuffed clothes under their clothes. The rest of us played lookout. They made a trip to the car, took the clothes out, returned, did it again.
They came back for their third load, they started getting rushed and chaotic.
In another dressing room, two guys started stuffing my clothes with clothes. When I came out of that dressing room, the clerk took one look at us and said, "I'm calling the cops. I froze." For a split second of voice inside me said, "Run, but I froze.
I was scared to death. My friends started walking fast, the clerk grabbed him and grabbed me. The police came and took us both to a room in the back of the store and began ask questions.
“They asked me, "My name, I told them I was Frank something."”
It's like, "Let me be Frank." Okay, Frank. I'll take this and I'd better use my real name or I'd be in more trouble. They knew it wasn't my name because I wasn't the first kid who tried that on them. The police took me outside, separated my friends.
As I was walking to the police car in handcuffs, I passed by a member of my ward. I knew very well. I tried to hide my handcuffs, but there was brother Lyman. He saw me, I was embarrassed humiliated, taken to the police station. My dad came to pick me up, I felt awful.
Why did I done this? I ended up with a parole officer, I had a community service, I was grounded for a year.
In fact, he says in high school, "What if his nickname was always grounded?"
And it doesn't mean grounded and it means grounded at home. He came back to the manager, "I'm sorry for what I did to you and your store. The manager appreciated I came in, but had a warning for me." It was brave for you to come in. I hope you learned your lesson, it's wrong to steal things.
I can't let you come back to the store again at not at least for six months. I'd been taught all my life to be honest with myself, others in the Lord. I'd been taught not to rationalize, and that's lying and stealing were wrong. None of this ever would have happened, had I made a pledge to myself to be honest long before this experience.
When the temptation came and pressure for my friends mounted, I should have said no and walked away, best advice I can give you is to make up your mind about how you will act before anything tempts you and it act on that promise to yourself. Great story, though. We can learn from it.
We can learn from David. We can learn from Travis to say, "If you ever have that feeling, I shouldn't be here. Wndia, exit." Right now.
Turn around, follow that prompting, and Travis is absolutely incredible, incredible basketball
player, and he's friends with me on social media, which he's got to be a great person then. He's got to be a great guy. Thank you, Travis, for being willing to share this, and willing to bless others with that story.
Yep, someone listening is going, "I have that feeling right now, and I do not want to be hauled out in cuffs in front of brother lineman." Right. Thanks, Travis. If you're out there listening, hey, we hope you'll join us on our full podcast.
It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We are with Dr. Sean Hopkins this week, who shows us some things in the Old Testament.
I had never seen before.
We hope you'll join us there, and then come back next week. We'll do another follow Him favorites.
